Dear Families:
I hope that you all will join me and Class K-207 for our Winter Celebration on Tuesday, December 23rd at 9:00 a.m. in Room K-207. We will be singing some of our favorite Winter songs. Even though this is a big holiday season for many of the families in our class, I am very attuned to the fact that some children's families do not celebrate these holidays. I have had talks with the children explaining the differences and the children do understand that we are all different...with different religions and different beliefs. Yet, I stress to our class that our class is one community and that we are all a family here in Class K-207...that we must respect each other and our differences. That said...our songs are just songs with really no emphasis on the meaning. We just love to sing!! I hope everyone undersands.
I am not assigning any "homework" over the holiday season but I would encouage everyone to read to their children on a daily basis. Have your child tell you what they notice about the book you are reading and what connections to their own life they notice. Have a "grown-up" dialogue with them. You will be amazed what you find our about them. We recently finished a chapter book entitled "One Hundred Dresses." We read one chapter a day. I was constantly amazed on a daily basis what they remembered about each and every character in the book and how they could recite word for word what the book was about the next day and what lessons they learned from our class discussions. It was such an enjoyable moment for me and reinforced my belief that children are like sponges soaking up everything that one teaches them. For math...talk to them about numbers all around. Play Monster Math. Have them do number stories in their head. The children love it.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for all the wonderful support that I have received from you throughout the year and thank you for the great opportunity to work with your children. I absolutely love each and every one of them. They have been a great source of enjoyment for me.
I hope that you all have a wonderful restful holiday. The "real" work begins in January so make sure your child is rested and ready. Many trips are being planned and I will definitely need many chaperones. So...you should also be rested and ready! The best is yet to come. Happy Holidays.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
P.S. I told the children to try tp wear red or green tomorrow.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
WINTER CELEBRATION
PLEASE JOIN CLASS K-207 FOR A WINTER CELEBRATION IN OUR CLASSROOM. WE WILL BE PERFORMING SOME OF OUR FAVORITE WINTER SONGS.
WHEN: Tuesday, DECEMBER 23, 2008
TIME: 9:00 A.M.
WHERE: CLASS K-207
ALSO, on Wednesday, December 17th, the students drew a name for their Special Secret Friend. Their Special Secret Friend activity will begin next Monday, Dec. 22nd and end on Tuesday, December 23rd. On Monday, students should give their Special Secret Friend a picture they have drawn at home or something that they have made with a tag that says To: (the person they have) From: YOUR Special Secret Friend. On Tuesday, the gift should be a small treat, a sucker, candy cane, etc. They should also have a tag on the treat that says To: (the person they have) From: YOUR Special Secret Friend. These gifts will be put into a basket and opened by the children on Tuesday after our sing-a-long. IT’S A SECRET!!! DON’T TELL WHO YOU SECRET FRIEND IS!
If any parent would like to contribute something to our class celebration, it would be very much appreciated. Some of the items can be juice, cookies, brownies, paper plates, forks, etc. Thank you in a advance. Hope to see you there.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
WHEN: Tuesday, DECEMBER 23, 2008
TIME: 9:00 A.M.
WHERE: CLASS K-207
ALSO, on Wednesday, December 17th, the students drew a name for their Special Secret Friend. Their Special Secret Friend activity will begin next Monday, Dec. 22nd and end on Tuesday, December 23rd. On Monday, students should give their Special Secret Friend a picture they have drawn at home or something that they have made with a tag that says To: (the person they have) From: YOUR Special Secret Friend. On Tuesday, the gift should be a small treat, a sucker, candy cane, etc. They should also have a tag on the treat that says To: (the person they have) From: YOUR Special Secret Friend. These gifts will be put into a basket and opened by the children on Tuesday after our sing-a-long. IT’S A SECRET!!! DON’T TELL WHO YOU SECRET FRIEND IS!
If any parent would like to contribute something to our class celebration, it would be very much appreciated. Some of the items can be juice, cookies, brownies, paper plates, forks, etc. Thank you in a advance. Hope to see you there.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
IS IT REALLY DECEMBER?
Dear Families:
It is hard to believe....but today - December 10th - marked our 65th day of school. We are now in the middle of December and almost in the year 2009. Time certainly does fly. In Class K-207, we are having so much fun with all the learning we have been doing. I hope the children told you that we had a big day yesterday - we launched our Just Right books and tore down the paper that was covering our Leveled Books!! This was certainly an exciting day. Each children received two leveled books close to where they are reading at this point in their reading careers. We want to children to be able to have a "smooth" read. It was a day when the children in Class K-207 learned that they need to become more focused on reading Just Right leveled books conventionally. In the days ahead, we will be learning that not only do the pictures tell the story, but the words do too!!! There are several children in the class who are already beyond this and several who can read high level books conventionally. Yet, there are the majority of the children who need to learn the strategies that good readers use at the beginning of learning to read - looking at the first letter in the word and checking the picture to see if it matches. From there...we learn to look for words within words and use many different strategies to move them forward. Please do not worry if your child is not reading. There are many different levels and, as teachers, we know how to put children together and how to move them forward. I know that I certainly did not read in Kindergarten!
Reading development is characterized by four stages: early emergent, upper emergent, early fluency, and fluency. At the earliest levels, the books have simple language structures, repetitive sentence or phrase patters, few lines of text on a page, strong illustration support, and easier vocabulary. As the levels progress, the books have less repetition, contain more lines of text on a page, and use longer sentences, more contextual support, and more advanced vocabulary.
An important aspect of this reading process used to teach children to read is Guided Reading. What is Guided Reading? Guided Reading is a group approach, involving the teacher with a small group of children of similar reading ability. As teachers, we select a book that is at the children's instructinal reading level and that will introduce or reinforce appropriate reading challenges for that particular group of children. We spend the first part of a Guided Reading session discussing the concepts of the book and scaffolding information. This lays a foundation for reading success. In the early emergent stage, the focus of the guided reading lessons is on developing students' awareness of concepts of print. Children at this stage are just beginning to look at letters and words and to attach sounds to letters. In the early emergent stage, the format of these guided reading lessons continues to support students' use of concepts of print but more emphasis is placed on developing their ability to use sounds and letters to decode words. Children at this stage are also developing their ability to use a variety of cueing systems when reading. This is a time when each child will get a lot of personalized attention from their teacher - no two children are alike and each child may get a different strategy to move them forward in their reading. The teacher has a more one-on-one relationship with the child and the child loves the attention their teacher gives to them. In K-207, we started guilded reading groups and I have met personally with several of the children and hope to meet with all of them by the end of the week. This will be a daily routine both in reading and writing. I hope that I did not bore you with all the details but it is a very exciting time for me and the children. I love to see the daily progress each and every child makes.
In writing, we have started our Small Moment unit. As I told you previously, this is a unit of writing that I love to teach. I love when the children write about true stories that have happened to them and how they ZOOM in on that moment. We will be listening to many stories that have small moments to get ideas about how to write our own.
Today in math, we made our Shape Museum. We looked through our magazines and cut out and pasted our different shapes on our different shaped posters. If the children had a triangle shape poster, then they had to go through magazines looking for triangles. If they had a circle shape poster, then they found and pasted circle shapes. To be honest, it was hard finding triangles in the magazines...the circles were the easiest to find. We had a lot of fun - messy ...but fun. We are now learning about money, measurement, patterns and working daily on our math problems!
In word study, we are working on our sight words. The children are reading these sight words on signs, on walls, and in books. Sight words are everywhere. Please have your children point them out to you as they notice them!
We have started our Firehouse study for our Social Studies Unit. We will be reading and learning a lot of Firehouses and Firemen. We will be making visits to the local firehouse, interviewing firemen and doing lots of research on firetrucks as well.
In January, we will be starting a Winnie the Pooh study. Each week, one child in the class has the opportunity to take our Class Winnie the Pooh home on a Friday and keep him for a week. The children will write about their adventures with Winnie and take a lot of pictures with Winnie. The following Friday, Winnie will be returned - with the class book - and the children will talk to the class about their adventures with Winnie. In the years past, Winnie has been to France, has been in a taxi, has been on a boat and has even been in JAIL! (only just visiting). This study is a lot of fun and teaches the children about responsibility - among other things. At the end of the project, our class goes to Prospect Park to look for Winnie at his house (He always seems to be at the dentist but leaves us a nice note) and have a picnic. I bet you did not know Winne the Pooh lives in Prospect Park - did you???? More on this later.
Have a wonderful week,
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
It is hard to believe....but today - December 10th - marked our 65th day of school. We are now in the middle of December and almost in the year 2009. Time certainly does fly. In Class K-207, we are having so much fun with all the learning we have been doing. I hope the children told you that we had a big day yesterday - we launched our Just Right books and tore down the paper that was covering our Leveled Books!! This was certainly an exciting day. Each children received two leveled books close to where they are reading at this point in their reading careers. We want to children to be able to have a "smooth" read. It was a day when the children in Class K-207 learned that they need to become more focused on reading Just Right leveled books conventionally. In the days ahead, we will be learning that not only do the pictures tell the story, but the words do too!!! There are several children in the class who are already beyond this and several who can read high level books conventionally. Yet, there are the majority of the children who need to learn the strategies that good readers use at the beginning of learning to read - looking at the first letter in the word and checking the picture to see if it matches. From there...we learn to look for words within words and use many different strategies to move them forward. Please do not worry if your child is not reading. There are many different levels and, as teachers, we know how to put children together and how to move them forward. I know that I certainly did not read in Kindergarten!
Reading development is characterized by four stages: early emergent, upper emergent, early fluency, and fluency. At the earliest levels, the books have simple language structures, repetitive sentence or phrase patters, few lines of text on a page, strong illustration support, and easier vocabulary. As the levels progress, the books have less repetition, contain more lines of text on a page, and use longer sentences, more contextual support, and more advanced vocabulary.
An important aspect of this reading process used to teach children to read is Guided Reading. What is Guided Reading? Guided Reading is a group approach, involving the teacher with a small group of children of similar reading ability. As teachers, we select a book that is at the children's instructinal reading level and that will introduce or reinforce appropriate reading challenges for that particular group of children. We spend the first part of a Guided Reading session discussing the concepts of the book and scaffolding information. This lays a foundation for reading success. In the early emergent stage, the focus of the guided reading lessons is on developing students' awareness of concepts of print. Children at this stage are just beginning to look at letters and words and to attach sounds to letters. In the early emergent stage, the format of these guided reading lessons continues to support students' use of concepts of print but more emphasis is placed on developing their ability to use sounds and letters to decode words. Children at this stage are also developing their ability to use a variety of cueing systems when reading. This is a time when each child will get a lot of personalized attention from their teacher - no two children are alike and each child may get a different strategy to move them forward in their reading. The teacher has a more one-on-one relationship with the child and the child loves the attention their teacher gives to them. In K-207, we started guilded reading groups and I have met personally with several of the children and hope to meet with all of them by the end of the week. This will be a daily routine both in reading and writing. I hope that I did not bore you with all the details but it is a very exciting time for me and the children. I love to see the daily progress each and every child makes.
In writing, we have started our Small Moment unit. As I told you previously, this is a unit of writing that I love to teach. I love when the children write about true stories that have happened to them and how they ZOOM in on that moment. We will be listening to many stories that have small moments to get ideas about how to write our own.
Today in math, we made our Shape Museum. We looked through our magazines and cut out and pasted our different shapes on our different shaped posters. If the children had a triangle shape poster, then they had to go through magazines looking for triangles. If they had a circle shape poster, then they found and pasted circle shapes. To be honest, it was hard finding triangles in the magazines...the circles were the easiest to find. We had a lot of fun - messy ...but fun. We are now learning about money, measurement, patterns and working daily on our math problems!
In word study, we are working on our sight words. The children are reading these sight words on signs, on walls, and in books. Sight words are everywhere. Please have your children point them out to you as they notice them!
We have started our Firehouse study for our Social Studies Unit. We will be reading and learning a lot of Firehouses and Firemen. We will be making visits to the local firehouse, interviewing firemen and doing lots of research on firetrucks as well.
In January, we will be starting a Winnie the Pooh study. Each week, one child in the class has the opportunity to take our Class Winnie the Pooh home on a Friday and keep him for a week. The children will write about their adventures with Winnie and take a lot of pictures with Winnie. The following Friday, Winnie will be returned - with the class book - and the children will talk to the class about their adventures with Winnie. In the years past, Winnie has been to France, has been in a taxi, has been on a boat and has even been in JAIL! (only just visiting). This study is a lot of fun and teaches the children about responsibility - among other things. At the end of the project, our class goes to Prospect Park to look for Winnie at his house (He always seems to be at the dentist but leaves us a nice note) and have a picnic. I bet you did not know Winne the Pooh lives in Prospect Park - did you???? More on this later.
Have a wonderful week,
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Publishing Party - December 5, 2008
Dear Families,
This week, Class K-207 will be publishing our third unit in Writing Workshop for our scientific writing pieces. We first looked at leaves and wrote extensively about the leaves that we found. We did this by looking very carefully - like scientists - at what leaves look like, how big they are, what colors the leaves are, etc. We wrote our pieces by labeling first and last letter sounds, writing the words we know (word wall words) and stretching out our words. We then moved on to really looking at plants and did the same scientific study. Well...class K-207 got a little tired of the leaves and plants. In looking for another group of object to write about, we looked no farther than our table toy bins. Now this is fun! So each table really examined - like scientists - five rubber toys - a plane, a house, a car, a bus, a truck and, again, looked and wrote about the objects very scientifically - how many windows, how many wheels, , what color is the object, etc. We are finishing these pieces tomorrow and we would like to invite you to our writing celebration. On Friday morning, during Parents as Enrichment Partners, please join us and take a look at the children's very own science books and our work on the outside bulletin board and in our room. I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Friday morning.
Our next writing unit will be "Small Moments." Keep talking about small moments with the children.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
This week, Class K-207 will be publishing our third unit in Writing Workshop for our scientific writing pieces. We first looked at leaves and wrote extensively about the leaves that we found. We did this by looking very carefully - like scientists - at what leaves look like, how big they are, what colors the leaves are, etc. We wrote our pieces by labeling first and last letter sounds, writing the words we know (word wall words) and stretching out our words. We then moved on to really looking at plants and did the same scientific study. Well...class K-207 got a little tired of the leaves and plants. In looking for another group of object to write about, we looked no farther than our table toy bins. Now this is fun! So each table really examined - like scientists - five rubber toys - a plane, a house, a car, a bus, a truck and, again, looked and wrote about the objects very scientifically - how many windows, how many wheels, , what color is the object, etc. We are finishing these pieces tomorrow and we would like to invite you to our writing celebration. On Friday morning, during Parents as Enrichment Partners, please join us and take a look at the children's very own science books and our work on the outside bulletin board and in our room. I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Friday morning.
Our next writing unit will be "Small Moments." Keep talking about small moments with the children.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Fireman/Firehouse Social Studies Unit
Dear Families,
Our next social studies unit this month will be on firehouse/fireman. This is a new method of study that began last year in Kindergarten and is led by the inquiry and interests of the children. The unit will be constantly changing and evolving. It will bring a unique and exciting experience to the community. Last year, the four Kindergarten classes worked on different aspects of the Firehouse Study. My class concentrated on Firemen - so our study focused entirely on what we know about Fireman, what we want to know about Fireman, etc. Our class - with the help of several parents - cut out a pattern of a life size person (one of our fathers) and made a life-size fireman out of paper mache. This fireman received a lot of press in the local papers and was exhibited in the window of Assemblyman Jim Brennan's office in Ditmis Park for several months. This fireman is currently on display in the multi-media room of PS 154 right above Ms. Guzzi's office. It is truly amazing what Kindergarteners can do!
The reason this study was so rich was due to the fact that we had many parents involved with the process. How you can help:
* If you are, or know someone who is, involved with the fire department or a related occupation, and would like to get involved with this study, please contact me.
* do you have any child-appropriate books at home about fire, fire trucks, firefighters, firehouses... non-fiction or fiction? Please bring them in! Because this unit is constantly changing, and will vary from class to class, we need as many resources as possible.
I am extremely enthusiastic - as are the other Kindergarten teachers - about kicking off this unit with your children!
Thank yo so mcuh in advance for your support.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Our next social studies unit this month will be on firehouse/fireman. This is a new method of study that began last year in Kindergarten and is led by the inquiry and interests of the children. The unit will be constantly changing and evolving. It will bring a unique and exciting experience to the community. Last year, the four Kindergarten classes worked on different aspects of the Firehouse Study. My class concentrated on Firemen - so our study focused entirely on what we know about Fireman, what we want to know about Fireman, etc. Our class - with the help of several parents - cut out a pattern of a life size person (one of our fathers) and made a life-size fireman out of paper mache. This fireman received a lot of press in the local papers and was exhibited in the window of Assemblyman Jim Brennan's office in Ditmis Park for several months. This fireman is currently on display in the multi-media room of PS 154 right above Ms. Guzzi's office. It is truly amazing what Kindergarteners can do!
The reason this study was so rich was due to the fact that we had many parents involved with the process. How you can help:
* If you are, or know someone who is, involved with the fire department or a related occupation, and would like to get involved with this study, please contact me.
* do you have any child-appropriate books at home about fire, fire trucks, firefighters, firehouses... non-fiction or fiction? Please bring them in! Because this unit is constantly changing, and will vary from class to class, we need as many resources as possible.
I am extremely enthusiastic - as are the other Kindergarten teachers - about kicking off this unit with your children!
Thank yo so mcuh in advance for your support.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Monday, December 1, 2008
Welcome Back to School!
Dear Families:
I hope that you all had a great LONG weekend and got plenty of rest. I would like to thank all our families who had the opportunity to participate in our celebration last Wednesday. I cannot believe all the good food and delicious pies that we all ate. We were all so stuffed before the holiday! Well..that is a good segway into what I would like to discuss with all of you today.
I know that it's a challenge just to get your children out of bed in the morning, let alone get them to start each day with a healthy breakfast. Together we can change that.
There is an important initiative that I am beginning in Class K-207. It's called THINK BREAKFAST!, and is sponsored by the New York State Education Department, Child Nutrition Program Administration. The initiative is designed to educate and encourage children to start each day with a healthy breakfast, and the importance of physical activity. "Oh, No...not another thing we have to do!" I know that you are all probably thinking that - especially during this busy time of the year. But if we all just take a moment to stop and think of the importance of getting childen to start early and think about what they are putting in their bodies, I know that in the end it will be a very positive experience for both you and your child.
Research shows that children who eat breakfast and engage in daily physical activity:
* Feel better * Have more energy * Do better in school.
Our classroom will be using "Discover The Big Benefits of Breakfast." This three-week THINK BREAKFAST! program features a variety of fun-filled classroom activities and rewards. The activities are designed to help our children develop the lifelong healthy habits of eating breakfast and engaging in physical activity every day.
WAKE UP TO THE BIG BENEFITS OF BREAKFAST!
As a parent, you can help deliver this important message:
* Be a positive role model. Eat breakfast each day too!
* Encourage your child to eat breakfast every day at home or at school.
* Inquire about our school's breakfast program. P.S. 154 offers free breakfast in the morning.
I know that I have problems with my own children eating a good solid breakfast in the morning. We don't have time...we only like those fattening chocolate muffins...The list goes on and on. Yet, the childen in Class K-207 have been discussing what it means to sit down and eat healthy - how eating healthy makes us feel better...how eating heathy makes us "smarter" So today I will be sending home a student activity/agenda booklet. Even though some of the activities seem a little advanced, you can go over the activities with your child and talk to them about healthy eating. Everyday, the children and I will be charting our good breakfast behaviors - and remember...Kids are very very honest! Enjoy.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
I hope that you all had a great LONG weekend and got plenty of rest. I would like to thank all our families who had the opportunity to participate in our celebration last Wednesday. I cannot believe all the good food and delicious pies that we all ate. We were all so stuffed before the holiday! Well..that is a good segway into what I would like to discuss with all of you today.
I know that it's a challenge just to get your children out of bed in the morning, let alone get them to start each day with a healthy breakfast. Together we can change that.
There is an important initiative that I am beginning in Class K-207. It's called THINK BREAKFAST!, and is sponsored by the New York State Education Department, Child Nutrition Program Administration. The initiative is designed to educate and encourage children to start each day with a healthy breakfast, and the importance of physical activity. "Oh, No...not another thing we have to do!" I know that you are all probably thinking that - especially during this busy time of the year. But if we all just take a moment to stop and think of the importance of getting childen to start early and think about what they are putting in their bodies, I know that in the end it will be a very positive experience for both you and your child.
Research shows that children who eat breakfast and engage in daily physical activity:
* Feel better * Have more energy * Do better in school.
Our classroom will be using "Discover The Big Benefits of Breakfast." This three-week THINK BREAKFAST! program features a variety of fun-filled classroom activities and rewards. The activities are designed to help our children develop the lifelong healthy habits of eating breakfast and engaging in physical activity every day.
WAKE UP TO THE BIG BENEFITS OF BREAKFAST!
As a parent, you can help deliver this important message:
* Be a positive role model. Eat breakfast each day too!
* Encourage your child to eat breakfast every day at home or at school.
* Inquire about our school's breakfast program. P.S. 154 offers free breakfast in the morning.
I know that I have problems with my own children eating a good solid breakfast in the morning. We don't have time...we only like those fattening chocolate muffins...The list goes on and on. Yet, the childen in Class K-207 have been discussing what it means to sit down and eat healthy - how eating healthy makes us feel better...how eating heathy makes us "smarter" So today I will be sending home a student activity/agenda booklet. Even though some of the activities seem a little advanced, you can go over the activities with your child and talk to them about healthy eating. Everyday, the children and I will be charting our good breakfast behaviors - and remember...Kids are very very honest! Enjoy.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Celebration
Dear Families:
Better late than never... We all have so much to be thankful for so I would like to celebrate tomorrow afternoon in Class
K-207. The children and I have been discussing what we are thankful for throughout the day today. Some of our comments are "I am thankful for my mom," "I am thankful for my dad." "I am thankful for love," "I am thankful for the presidents." Each child has something unique to say. I just love listening to each one. So I am am making a Thanksgiving tree and will have each child put their own leaf (their handprint) on the tree and tell the class what they are thankful for. If you would like to come to our class at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon to help us celebrate, you are more than welcome. I will be in my room - without the chidren - from 12:20 to 1 p.m. if you would like to help set up.
I am listing some of the things that we need to make this a wonderful celebration. Please send me a comment on this blog or e-mail - www.class.k207@gmail.com to let me know if you are able to come and participate in our last-minute celebration. If you notice that someone is not on the e-mail list, please make sure to spread the word. I apologize for the late notice, but since I was out at Teacher's College on Monday, I am a little behind!
I am taking this opportunity to thank all of you for the wonderful support you have given to me and to Class K-207. It has been a wonderful three months. Happy Thanksgiving!
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
I will supply the juice
List of things needed:
cups and plates
forks
plastic table cloth
sliced turkey
cranberry sauce
stuffing (?)
fruit
pies
any dessert
Better late than never... We all have so much to be thankful for so I would like to celebrate tomorrow afternoon in Class
K-207. The children and I have been discussing what we are thankful for throughout the day today. Some of our comments are "I am thankful for my mom," "I am thankful for my dad." "I am thankful for love," "I am thankful for the presidents." Each child has something unique to say. I just love listening to each one. So I am am making a Thanksgiving tree and will have each child put their own leaf (their handprint) on the tree and tell the class what they are thankful for. If you would like to come to our class at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon to help us celebrate, you are more than welcome. I will be in my room - without the chidren - from 12:20 to 1 p.m. if you would like to help set up.
I am listing some of the things that we need to make this a wonderful celebration. Please send me a comment on this blog or e-mail - www.class.k207@gmail.com to let me know if you are able to come and participate in our last-minute celebration. If you notice that someone is not on the e-mail list, please make sure to spread the word. I apologize for the late notice, but since I was out at Teacher's College on Monday, I am a little behind!
I am taking this opportunity to thank all of you for the wonderful support you have given to me and to Class K-207. It has been a wonderful three months. Happy Thanksgiving!
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
I will supply the juice
List of things needed:
cups and plates
forks
plastic table cloth
sliced turkey
cranberry sauce
stuffing (?)
fruit
pies
any dessert
Friday, November 21, 2008
Reading and Writing Workshop at Teacher's College
Dear Families:
Thank you to all of you who met with me last night. I enjoyed our one on one conversations very much. It was a very long night and I apologize for not keeping to the ten minute rule and for keeping some of you waiting so long. I hope it was worth the wait.
I would like to tell you that on Monday, November 24th, I will be attending a workshop at Teacher's College/Columbia University all day. We have a wonderful substitute teacher scheduled to work with our class - so please do not be concerned. I have left plans for her to work throughout the day. The prep that day is Art and it is scheduled for 2:15 until 3:00 in the Art Room. If any parent would like to help out in the art room on Monday and help the substitute teacher get the children ready for dismissal, it would be greatly appreciated.
I know that I have told you that one of my favorite subjects to teach children is writing. I just love to see the progression of the children from September to June - where they become independent author's of their own detailed pieces. I also love to learn as many good things about the writing process as I could so that I can become a better teacher for your children. The conference that I will be attending on Monday is called - "Conferring and Small Group Work to Support Small Moment Writing and Writing for Readers." Our instructer will be Natalie Louis who is that author of Writing for Readers - a book that I use as my bible for writing workshop. I am very excited to attend this conference.
When working in Kindergarten classrooms, it is easy to buy into the idea that little children cannot really articulate what they are trying to do as writers, and that they cannot really make plans and have intentions as writers. But that simply is not true! Five and six year old children absolutely want the chance to think about they they have already done, to imagine what they want to do, and to make deliberate choices and plans for how they will proceed. A good teaching of writing is teaching children to think about their writing..and this means, teaching kids how they can answer questions such as, "What are you working on as a writer?" and "What have you tried so far?" "How did it go?' "What were you thinking of doing next?" I love the small moment writing unit, so I hope to come away with some new ideas that will help your children enjoy it as much as I do and become better writers. I think it is important to show children how to go from KNOWING ABOUT to USING letters to communicate their stories. From their writing pieces so far, I know that they are ready to do this. After all, the only reason to learn about letters in the first place is because you have something to say. You know as well as I do how much they have to say!!!
I know that you can help them with this unit by noticing when your children does something that is a very tiny - SMALL - moment that you bring this small moment to their attention and say something like "wow, that is a small moment...that is something to write about when you write your small moments..." We want children to "zoom in on Small Moments" and then turn their small moments into stories that cross several pages. If you keep refering to the "small" moments that occur in their lives through the day, it will make them comfortable in knowing what to write about when the time comes for them to write. They will have many "small" moments in their repertoire.
Next week is our long Thanksgiving weekend. Our last day of school is Wednesday. Have a wonderful holiday.
Fondly,
Mrs. Graham
Thank you to all of you who met with me last night. I enjoyed our one on one conversations very much. It was a very long night and I apologize for not keeping to the ten minute rule and for keeping some of you waiting so long. I hope it was worth the wait.
I would like to tell you that on Monday, November 24th, I will be attending a workshop at Teacher's College/Columbia University all day. We have a wonderful substitute teacher scheduled to work with our class - so please do not be concerned. I have left plans for her to work throughout the day. The prep that day is Art and it is scheduled for 2:15 until 3:00 in the Art Room. If any parent would like to help out in the art room on Monday and help the substitute teacher get the children ready for dismissal, it would be greatly appreciated.
I know that I have told you that one of my favorite subjects to teach children is writing. I just love to see the progression of the children from September to June - where they become independent author's of their own detailed pieces. I also love to learn as many good things about the writing process as I could so that I can become a better teacher for your children. The conference that I will be attending on Monday is called - "Conferring and Small Group Work to Support Small Moment Writing and Writing for Readers." Our instructer will be Natalie Louis who is that author of Writing for Readers - a book that I use as my bible for writing workshop. I am very excited to attend this conference.
When working in Kindergarten classrooms, it is easy to buy into the idea that little children cannot really articulate what they are trying to do as writers, and that they cannot really make plans and have intentions as writers. But that simply is not true! Five and six year old children absolutely want the chance to think about they they have already done, to imagine what they want to do, and to make deliberate choices and plans for how they will proceed. A good teaching of writing is teaching children to think about their writing..and this means, teaching kids how they can answer questions such as, "What are you working on as a writer?" and "What have you tried so far?" "How did it go?' "What were you thinking of doing next?" I love the small moment writing unit, so I hope to come away with some new ideas that will help your children enjoy it as much as I do and become better writers. I think it is important to show children how to go from KNOWING ABOUT to USING letters to communicate their stories. From their writing pieces so far, I know that they are ready to do this. After all, the only reason to learn about letters in the first place is because you have something to say. You know as well as I do how much they have to say!!!
I know that you can help them with this unit by noticing when your children does something that is a very tiny - SMALL - moment that you bring this small moment to their attention and say something like "wow, that is a small moment...that is something to write about when you write your small moments..." We want children to "zoom in on Small Moments" and then turn their small moments into stories that cross several pages. If you keep refering to the "small" moments that occur in their lives through the day, it will make them comfortable in knowing what to write about when the time comes for them to write. They will have many "small" moments in their repertoire.
Next week is our long Thanksgiving weekend. Our last day of school is Wednesday. Have a wonderful holiday.
Fondly,
Mrs. Graham
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Parent Teacher Conferences and Personal Narratives
Dear Families:
Just a reminder that Personal Narratives of your children will be coming home today in your child's bookbag. Please look for them in his or her bag. I personally put them into their red folders. For the first marking period, Kindergarten children do not receive report cards. Reports Cards will be done for the second marking period. Also attached to the Narratives is a reminder of the time of the Parent Teacher Conference that you scheduled with me. Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 20th in the afternoon and evening. Conferences are held for only ten minutes a family to accomodate all families. If you need more time to meet with me, that can be arranged. Please forgive me in advance if I sometimes go slightly over the ten minute mark. I never feel that ten minutes is enough time for me to tell you all the wonderful things I have to tell you about your child, If you did not receive a reminder of the scheduled time from me that is because I did not receive the conference schedule notice back from you. Please look into your children's bookbag on a daily basis to make sure that you receive all the information we send home. Please note that there is a half day tomorrow. Your child needs to be picked up in the cafeteria at 12 p.m. Thank you.
Below are the scheduled conferences:
AFTERNOON
6:00 - Shannon
1:10 - Riana
1:20 - Unni
1:30 - Lucas
1:40 - Emile
1:50 - Dylan
2:00 - Adelaide
2:10 - Clea
2:20 - Chanique
EVENING
6:00 - Shannon
6:20 - Flynn
6:40 - Andrew
6:50 - Marcelino
7:00 - Jocelyn
7:10 - Kevin
7:20 - Grace
Also I would like to thank the parents who purchased books for our classroom at the Book Fair. I cannot tell you how much that means to me and the children to have new fresh books to read!! Thank you.
See you tomorrow.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Just a reminder that Personal Narratives of your children will be coming home today in your child's bookbag. Please look for them in his or her bag. I personally put them into their red folders. For the first marking period, Kindergarten children do not receive report cards. Reports Cards will be done for the second marking period. Also attached to the Narratives is a reminder of the time of the Parent Teacher Conference that you scheduled with me. Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 20th in the afternoon and evening. Conferences are held for only ten minutes a family to accomodate all families. If you need more time to meet with me, that can be arranged. Please forgive me in advance if I sometimes go slightly over the ten minute mark. I never feel that ten minutes is enough time for me to tell you all the wonderful things I have to tell you about your child, If you did not receive a reminder of the scheduled time from me that is because I did not receive the conference schedule notice back from you. Please look into your children's bookbag on a daily basis to make sure that you receive all the information we send home. Please note that there is a half day tomorrow. Your child needs to be picked up in the cafeteria at 12 p.m. Thank you.
Below are the scheduled conferences:
AFTERNOON
6:00 - Shannon
1:10 - Riana
1:20 - Unni
1:30 - Lucas
1:40 - Emile
1:50 - Dylan
2:00 - Adelaide
2:10 - Clea
2:20 - Chanique
EVENING
6:00 - Shannon
6:20 - Flynn
6:40 - Andrew
6:50 - Marcelino
7:00 - Jocelyn
7:10 - Kevin
7:20 - Grace
Also I would like to thank the parents who purchased books for our classroom at the Book Fair. I cannot tell you how much that means to me and the children to have new fresh books to read!! Thank you.
See you tomorrow.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Monday, November 17, 2008
Green Day Reminder
Dear Families:
Don't forget to have your child wear something GREEN tomorrow, November 18th. It's our official PS 154 Green Kick-off Day! The assembly for our Kindergarten class will begin at 9:30 a.m. The children will be singing the Recycling Song. Also the children should bring in items for recycling during the week. All items can be dropped off in the MMR.
* Old sneakers
* Old cell phones
* Empty printer cartridges
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Don't forget to have your child wear something GREEN tomorrow, November 18th. It's our official PS 154 Green Kick-off Day! The assembly for our Kindergarten class will begin at 9:30 a.m. The children will be singing the Recycling Song. Also the children should bring in items for recycling during the week. All items can be dropped off in the MMR.
* Old sneakers
* Old cell phones
* Empty printer cartridges
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Head's Up for the Week of November 17th
There is many things happening in Kindergarten next week. Here is a preview of some of the events:
On Monday, November 17th, Author and Illustrator Nina Crews will be coming to our class to read from her book Neighborhood Mother Goose. We will be sharing this event with Ms. Hanson and Ms. Rios' class at 9:30 a.m.
On Tuesday, November 18th, we will be having a Go Green Assembly in the Multimedia Room to talk about ways our school can help the environment. The children in Class K-207 will be singing the song, "We've Been Working on Recycling" to the tune of "I've Been Working On The Railroad." They love it. Ask them to sing it to you over the weekend. We will also be working on a Go Green Day - all day long!
Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 20th. A sign up sheet will go home today where you can indicate if you would like to meet in the morning or afternoon. If you have more than one child in the school, please let me know so I can coordinate schedules with the sibling's teacher. I will let you know the time of your appointment on Monday. Each parent will be given a 10 minute time slot. If you need more time, I can arrange another date to meet. Thursday will be a half day for the children.
I am going to begin our Fireman/Firehouse Inquiry Study soon. If you know of any FirePERSON who would like to come in to talk to our class, please let me know. We will be going on several trips to the Firehouse so I hope that I can get as many parent volunteers as possible.
If you do not like how your child's school photograph came out, retakes will be December 5. Please let me know if you would like to do retakes. Yet, I think all the pictures came out beautifully!!!
I would like to thank Kevin's mom for volunteering to work on the Art Fair Project with the children. I think we will make a lot of money for the PTA with this wonderful piece of art.
I would love to hear any comments or questions that you may have on this web site since I would love it to be interactive tool for us all to use. I believe all you have to do is press the "comment" button under my posting. Don't be afraid...it is really easy!
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
On Monday, November 17th, Author and Illustrator Nina Crews will be coming to our class to read from her book Neighborhood Mother Goose. We will be sharing this event with Ms. Hanson and Ms. Rios' class at 9:30 a.m.
On Tuesday, November 18th, we will be having a Go Green Assembly in the Multimedia Room to talk about ways our school can help the environment. The children in Class K-207 will be singing the song, "We've Been Working on Recycling" to the tune of "I've Been Working On The Railroad." They love it. Ask them to sing it to you over the weekend. We will also be working on a Go Green Day - all day long!
Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 20th. A sign up sheet will go home today where you can indicate if you would like to meet in the morning or afternoon. If you have more than one child in the school, please let me know so I can coordinate schedules with the sibling's teacher. I will let you know the time of your appointment on Monday. Each parent will be given a 10 minute time slot. If you need more time, I can arrange another date to meet. Thursday will be a half day for the children.
I am going to begin our Fireman/Firehouse Inquiry Study soon. If you know of any FirePERSON who would like to come in to talk to our class, please let me know. We will be going on several trips to the Firehouse so I hope that I can get as many parent volunteers as possible.
If you do not like how your child's school photograph came out, retakes will be December 5. Please let me know if you would like to do retakes. Yet, I think all the pictures came out beautifully!!!
I would like to thank Kevin's mom for volunteering to work on the Art Fair Project with the children. I think we will make a lot of money for the PTA with this wonderful piece of art.
I would love to hear any comments or questions that you may have on this web site since I would love it to be interactive tool for us all to use. I believe all you have to do is press the "comment" button under my posting. Don't be afraid...it is really easy!
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Thursday, November 13, 2008
November News
Dear Families:
Thank you to the parents who came with us on our Prospect Park Zoo Trip. The day was wonderful and we all had a great time. I hope you enjoy the photos. The children learned a lot about the animals and had a great time petting and feeding them. I think they all enjoyed the feeding of the seals. There will not be many days left like that one this winter but there will be many more trips to come.
I am looking forward to meeting all of you next week at the Parent Teacher conferences. Since we are only allotted ten minutes for each family, if you need more time to speak to me, we can arrange another date. The children are all doing great and I am going to love to speak to you about each one.
We are well into our new writing unit - Writing Like Scientists - and the children are writing beautifully. The Teacher College staff developer came into our classroom while we were working on this unit and could not believe how great the children were sounding out their sounds and writing the letters that they hear. I am so proud of them. The children are also really moving ahead with reading. It is very funny that they are reading the labels and signs around the room. They do not even realize that they are reading! For math, we are working of problem solving, patterns and measurement. The children love math - especially figuring out the problems. We will soon be moving into our new social studies unit - The Fireman/Firehouse Inquiry Study. We will be visiting Firehouses in the neighborhood so I hope that I can count on many parents to come with us on our walking trips. More on that later.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Thank you to the parents who came with us on our Prospect Park Zoo Trip. The day was wonderful and we all had a great time. I hope you enjoy the photos. The children learned a lot about the animals and had a great time petting and feeding them. I think they all enjoyed the feeding of the seals. There will not be many days left like that one this winter but there will be many more trips to come.
I am looking forward to meeting all of you next week at the Parent Teacher conferences. Since we are only allotted ten minutes for each family, if you need more time to speak to me, we can arrange another date. The children are all doing great and I am going to love to speak to you about each one.
We are well into our new writing unit - Writing Like Scientists - and the children are writing beautifully. The Teacher College staff developer came into our classroom while we were working on this unit and could not believe how great the children were sounding out their sounds and writing the letters that they hear. I am so proud of them. The children are also really moving ahead with reading. It is very funny that they are reading the labels and signs around the room. They do not even realize that they are reading! For math, we are working of problem solving, patterns and measurement. The children love math - especially figuring out the problems. We will soon be moving into our new social studies unit - The Fireman/Firehouse Inquiry Study. We will be visiting Firehouses in the neighborhood so I hope that I can count on many parents to come with us on our walking trips. More on that later.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Saturday, November 8, 2008
What is Happening in November in K-207?
I cannot believe that we are into the month of November and that we are well into our second month of School! Time does fly when you are having fun.
I hope that you all enjoyed our production of The Three Billy Goats Gruff on Friday for Parents as Enrichment Partners. As I told you on Friday, The Three Billy Goats Gruff was one of our Star Books which was read everyday for one week. The children loved it and wanted to make a play out of it. I think that the children did an excellent job! Enjoy the photos.
For the month of November our Units of Study are as follows:
READING WORKSHOP: Our unit of study for November is called Comprehension and Partnerships. We will be spending 25 minutes reading independently. For the first 12 minutes, we will read during “private time” where we sit back-to-back with our reading partners. Then, we switch to “partner time.” During this time, we will share one book with our partner. We will be learning to give our partners book introductions and how to discuss the characters in our books with our partners. We will practice reading strategies such as Turn Taking (I read a page, you read the next page), Echo Reading (I read a page, you echo me), and Choral Reading (we read each page at the same time). We will “shopping” for new books every week to keep in our individual classroom book baggies. We will keep five books in these bags: one Star Book (a familiar story we had read to us 4 times in class) three Just Right books (a leveled book that we can “read” on our own), and one Look Book (a book with interesting pictures we want to discuss with our partners).
SHARED READING: We will begin to make a switch from reading poems and rhymes to reading simple enlarged texts (Big Books). We will be practicing the same strategies for reading that we practiced with our big poems (looking for patterns, rhymes,) and learning some new strategies such as taking picture walks and using the pictures to help us read the text.
WRITING WORKSHOP: We have been writing so much in K-207. In October, we learned how to write across three pages in our Personal Narrative Unit of Study. We learned to pay close attention to stretching out each word slowly and writing down each sound that we hear. We also learned how to read back our own writing and make sure our sentences have spaces. For November, we are becoming Scientists and looking very closely at leaves. We collected leaves in Prospect Park last Wednesday and are examining them very closely as a Scientist would do. We learned that leaves have veins (or bones), they are different shapes, some leaves have edges, some are big while other are small. We are making books about our findings.
WORD STUDY: We have begun using Words Their Way, a program that teaches children to use spelling, phonics, and vocabulary through picture and word sorts. This program teaches students how to look at words so that they can construct an ever-deepening understanding of how spelling works to represent sound and meaning. We are using this word study program for 10 to 15 minutes of practice every day. The children are working in small groups, doing various sorts such as sorting pictures by beginning sounds, sorting letters of various fonts, and sorting pictures that are the same. To complement this program, I have begun teaching the children one high frequency word (sight word) a week. Our sight words so far are: the, and, a, I and in. We have learned that when we see a sight word in a book, we can read it “in a snap” and when we want to write a sight word, we can also write it “in a snap.” We can also look on our classroom word wall to find a word that we already learned.
MATH WORKSHOP: We are having such a good time doing hands-on activities in Math Workshop. This month, we will look for symmetry in autumn leaves, explore the balance scale, and begin investigate the temperature. We continue to do math word problems everyday.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We have investigated our found materials or "beautiful stuff" that the children brought into class. We sorted, compared, constructed and created, various projects with our beautiful stuff. This unit was open-ended, and we are allowing the children to take the lead as to where their "beautiful stuff" took them. Outside our classroom on the bulletin board are collages of the found materials that the children created. Enjoy it.
Reminders:
*Monday, November 10 - Prospect Park Zoo Trip for K-207
*Tuesday, November 11- No School
*Thursday, November 20th-Parent Teacher Conferences (sign up sheet for times will be sent home
I hope that you all enjoyed our production of The Three Billy Goats Gruff on Friday for Parents as Enrichment Partners. As I told you on Friday, The Three Billy Goats Gruff was one of our Star Books which was read everyday for one week. The children loved it and wanted to make a play out of it. I think that the children did an excellent job! Enjoy the photos.
For the month of November our Units of Study are as follows:
READING WORKSHOP: Our unit of study for November is called Comprehension and Partnerships. We will be spending 25 minutes reading independently. For the first 12 minutes, we will read during “private time” where we sit back-to-back with our reading partners. Then, we switch to “partner time.” During this time, we will share one book with our partner. We will be learning to give our partners book introductions and how to discuss the characters in our books with our partners. We will practice reading strategies such as Turn Taking (I read a page, you read the next page), Echo Reading (I read a page, you echo me), and Choral Reading (we read each page at the same time). We will “shopping” for new books every week to keep in our individual classroom book baggies. We will keep five books in these bags: one Star Book (a familiar story we had read to us 4 times in class) three Just Right books (a leveled book that we can “read” on our own), and one Look Book (a book with interesting pictures we want to discuss with our partners).
SHARED READING: We will begin to make a switch from reading poems and rhymes to reading simple enlarged texts (Big Books). We will be practicing the same strategies for reading that we practiced with our big poems (looking for patterns, rhymes,) and learning some new strategies such as taking picture walks and using the pictures to help us read the text.
WRITING WORKSHOP: We have been writing so much in K-207. In October, we learned how to write across three pages in our Personal Narrative Unit of Study. We learned to pay close attention to stretching out each word slowly and writing down each sound that we hear. We also learned how to read back our own writing and make sure our sentences have spaces. For November, we are becoming Scientists and looking very closely at leaves. We collected leaves in Prospect Park last Wednesday and are examining them very closely as a Scientist would do. We learned that leaves have veins (or bones), they are different shapes, some leaves have edges, some are big while other are small. We are making books about our findings.
WORD STUDY: We have begun using Words Their Way, a program that teaches children to use spelling, phonics, and vocabulary through picture and word sorts. This program teaches students how to look at words so that they can construct an ever-deepening understanding of how spelling works to represent sound and meaning. We are using this word study program for 10 to 15 minutes of practice every day. The children are working in small groups, doing various sorts such as sorting pictures by beginning sounds, sorting letters of various fonts, and sorting pictures that are the same. To complement this program, I have begun teaching the children one high frequency word (sight word) a week. Our sight words so far are: the, and, a, I and in. We have learned that when we see a sight word in a book, we can read it “in a snap” and when we want to write a sight word, we can also write it “in a snap.” We can also look on our classroom word wall to find a word that we already learned.
MATH WORKSHOP: We are having such a good time doing hands-on activities in Math Workshop. This month, we will look for symmetry in autumn leaves, explore the balance scale, and begin investigate the temperature. We continue to do math word problems everyday.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We have investigated our found materials or "beautiful stuff" that the children brought into class. We sorted, compared, constructed and created, various projects with our beautiful stuff. This unit was open-ended, and we are allowing the children to take the lead as to where their "beautiful stuff" took them. Outside our classroom on the bulletin board are collages of the found materials that the children created. Enjoy it.
Reminders:
*Monday, November 10 - Prospect Park Zoo Trip for K-207
*Tuesday, November 11- No School
*Thursday, November 20th-Parent Teacher Conferences (sign up sheet for times will be sent home
Friday, November 7, 2008
Trip to Prospect Park Zoo on Monday, November 10, 2008
Schedule:
• 9:30 Meeting Time: Please be outside the main entrance of the school. Our class
will aim to be downstairs at approximately 9:45 a.m.
• 9:45 Departure: We get on the bus. You can help by reminding the children that they are
to sit with their partners and by buckling seatbelts.
Since so many of you generously volunteered, I was able to make partnerships for this
Trip. I will let you know your group when we get settled on the bus.
• 10am-11am Walk the Discovery Trail – We will start out together but feel free to take your
pair and explore at your own pace. If you finish the trail before 11, please feel free to explore the other areas like the zoo, such as the indoor baboon area, barn, etc.
• 11am Lunch. Meet at the Sea Lion café area. Weather permitting we will all eat lunch outside at the tables. The children all have bagged lunch in their backpacks. I have baby wipes, and hand-sanitizer. There is a water fountain nearby if children are thirsty. Please know that our classroom policy is that we do not share food. If your pair of children finishes early, feel free to walk them around some more, or take them to the bathroom.
• 11:30am: Sea Lion feeding at the Sea Lion Court.
• Noon: Feel free to explore a bit more with your group. If your pair of children is feeling a bit tired, let us know. In that case, we will have them sit down at the stairs by the entrance and I can read them a story.
• 12:30: Meet back at the zoo entrance and get on the bus.
• 1 pm: Return to School. Please help me line up outside the school. We will say farewell to you then.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me on the bus on our way there.
Please note: In an effort to ensure a positive experience for all, I ask that parents do not make purchases for children on school field trips.
I am looking forward to this fun trip!
If it is pouring rain…..the trip will be postponed and will then be re-scheduled.
• 9:30 Meeting Time: Please be outside the main entrance of the school. Our class
will aim to be downstairs at approximately 9:45 a.m.
• 9:45 Departure: We get on the bus. You can help by reminding the children that they are
to sit with their partners and by buckling seatbelts.
Since so many of you generously volunteered, I was able to make partnerships for this
Trip. I will let you know your group when we get settled on the bus.
• 10am-11am Walk the Discovery Trail – We will start out together but feel free to take your
pair and explore at your own pace. If you finish the trail before 11, please feel free to explore the other areas like the zoo, such as the indoor baboon area, barn, etc.
• 11am Lunch. Meet at the Sea Lion café area. Weather permitting we will all eat lunch outside at the tables. The children all have bagged lunch in their backpacks. I have baby wipes, and hand-sanitizer. There is a water fountain nearby if children are thirsty. Please know that our classroom policy is that we do not share food. If your pair of children finishes early, feel free to walk them around some more, or take them to the bathroom.
• 11:30am: Sea Lion feeding at the Sea Lion Court.
• Noon: Feel free to explore a bit more with your group. If your pair of children is feeling a bit tired, let us know. In that case, we will have them sit down at the stairs by the entrance and I can read them a story.
• 12:30: Meet back at the zoo entrance and get on the bus.
• 1 pm: Return to School. Please help me line up outside the school. We will say farewell to you then.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me on the bus on our way there.
Please note: In an effort to ensure a positive experience for all, I ask that parents do not make purchases for children on school field trips.
I am looking forward to this fun trip!
If it is pouring rain…..the trip will be postponed and will then be re-scheduled.
Annual Winter Fair a PS 154
Dear Families:
Each year the Winter Fair auctions off a class art project organized and run by a parent from the class. The project is a collaborative one and should involve all the students in the class. Ideas for projects include photography, collage, sculpture, painting, quilts, whatever you can imagine. The fair is December 6th, so we need the project no later than December 5th. I would like to know if any parent in Class K-207 can head this project and work closely with the class on it. Please let me know as soon as possible. Also, if any parents are interested in volunteering in other capacities on the winter fair please contact Emily O’Connor – brendemily@earthlink.net. Thank you again for all your support.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Each year the Winter Fair auctions off a class art project organized and run by a parent from the class. The project is a collaborative one and should involve all the students in the class. Ideas for projects include photography, collage, sculpture, painting, quilts, whatever you can imagine. The fair is December 6th, so we need the project no later than December 5th. I would like to know if any parent in Class K-207 can head this project and work closely with the class on it. Please let me know as soon as possible. Also, if any parents are interested in volunteering in other capacities on the winter fair please contact Emily O’Connor – brendemily@earthlink.net. Thank you again for all your support.
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Writing Workshop - New Unit
Dear Parents:
I am very excited that we are beginning a new unit for writing workshop to help children think like scientists and "write what we see." We will be looking very closely at leaves and plants. I know that the children did bring in leaves for Science for Ms. Rosen's unit of study on plants, but I need the get more leaves and be with the children when they pick them. So...tomorrow - November 5, 2008 - we will be taking a walking trip through the neighborhood, picking up different kinds of leaves. I would love it if I had several parents who could accompany me on this trip. We will be leaving the school at 9:30. Please let me know if you could join us. Thank you for all your support. I would also like to thank you for purchasing the ticket for me to the Parent's Night out last night. It was really wonderful and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Ms. Graham
I am very excited that we are beginning a new unit for writing workshop to help children think like scientists and "write what we see." We will be looking very closely at leaves and plants. I know that the children did bring in leaves for Science for Ms. Rosen's unit of study on plants, but I need the get more leaves and be with the children when they pick them. So...tomorrow - November 5, 2008 - we will be taking a walking trip through the neighborhood, picking up different kinds of leaves. I would love it if I had several parents who could accompany me on this trip. We will be leaving the school at 9:30. Please let me know if you could join us. Thank you for all your support. I would also like to thank you for purchasing the ticket for me to the Parent's Night out last night. It was really wonderful and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Ms. Graham
Sunday, November 2, 2008
November 2, 2008
Dear Families:
WOW...I want to thank you for all the very generous goodies and decorations that you sent in with you children for our Pajama Party on Friday. We received and ate wonderful homemade brownies, the most gorgeous white and chocolate covered pretzels I have ever seen, great homemade cookies...the list goes on and on. Thank you. We had so much fun - reading spooky stories, playing chess, listening and dancing to The Monster Mash and making smores in the microwave. I hope the children did not get sick from eating all these delicacies.
The children are really working hard. We are working on our partnership reading and learning to be good partners. The children sit knee-to-knee and read their star books to each other. Half the children are apples and the other half are oranges. So if you hear the children telling you that they are an apple during reading, they are telling you the truth. One day the apple reads and the next day the orange reads. I always get a kick out of it when the kids come up to me to ask if "apples will be reading or will oranges?"
A parent brought to my attention her concerns regarding the private Back-to-Back reading because of the small lice issue we are experiencing in our class. I take these concerns very seriously and have changed my policy on this procedure. The children will be sitting at least 12 inches away from their reading partner during the private reading times. Thank you for letting me know your concerns.
During Shared Reading, the children are reading the weekly poem. Right now, it is the Alphabet Poems. We look at these poems very carefully - picking out the rhyming words and their word wall words. By the end of the week, the children know how to read these poems and are very proud that they can “read.” Every child wants a turn to recite it during Shared Reading. I am very proud of them. You should be too.
During the week, I conference with several children a day both in reading and writing. It is amazing how they are progressing. For writing, we are continuing with our three-finger stories - learning to stretch out words. They are getting better everyday.
For Math, we are working on problem solving and working on number sentences. We are looking at patterns all around and measurement. The children love math and working on math problems. We are well into our “Beautiful Stuff” Social Studies Unit. The children are having fun looking through the "stuff" and showing it to their friends. We are sorting, measuring, and looking very closely at all the items. We are going to be working on a collage with the materials we have.
This week, we were fortunate to have Dylan's grandmother come to visit and work with the children on an art activity. Dylan's grandmother, Abby, is a retired Art Teacher and she worked with the children on making paper collage figures. The figures came out amazing and soon will be hung inside our classroom. I love them. You will too.
Below this posting, I have included a slide show of some of the many things we are doing in Class K-207. The pictures include reading our published pieces to Mrs. Concannon's First Grade Class, playing chess, working on the art activity with Dylan's grandmother and our wonderful Pajama Party. I hope you enjoy the show.
To give you a head's up. On Friday, for Parent's as Enrichment Partners, the children of K-207 will have a little surprise presentation for you. I hope that you will be able to join us. On Monday, November 10, we will be going to the Prospect Park Zoo. For those of you who have not returned the permission slip, please do so. Thank you.
Have a wonderful week.
Ms. Graham
WOW...I want to thank you for all the very generous goodies and decorations that you sent in with you children for our Pajama Party on Friday. We received and ate wonderful homemade brownies, the most gorgeous white and chocolate covered pretzels I have ever seen, great homemade cookies...the list goes on and on. Thank you. We had so much fun - reading spooky stories, playing chess, listening and dancing to The Monster Mash and making smores in the microwave. I hope the children did not get sick from eating all these delicacies.
The children are really working hard. We are working on our partnership reading and learning to be good partners. The children sit knee-to-knee and read their star books to each other. Half the children are apples and the other half are oranges. So if you hear the children telling you that they are an apple during reading, they are telling you the truth. One day the apple reads and the next day the orange reads. I always get a kick out of it when the kids come up to me to ask if "apples will be reading or will oranges?"
A parent brought to my attention her concerns regarding the private Back-to-Back reading because of the small lice issue we are experiencing in our class. I take these concerns very seriously and have changed my policy on this procedure. The children will be sitting at least 12 inches away from their reading partner during the private reading times. Thank you for letting me know your concerns.
During Shared Reading, the children are reading the weekly poem. Right now, it is the Alphabet Poems. We look at these poems very carefully - picking out the rhyming words and their word wall words. By the end of the week, the children know how to read these poems and are very proud that they can “read.” Every child wants a turn to recite it during Shared Reading. I am very proud of them. You should be too.
During the week, I conference with several children a day both in reading and writing. It is amazing how they are progressing. For writing, we are continuing with our three-finger stories - learning to stretch out words. They are getting better everyday.
For Math, we are working on problem solving and working on number sentences. We are looking at patterns all around and measurement. The children love math and working on math problems. We are well into our “Beautiful Stuff” Social Studies Unit. The children are having fun looking through the "stuff" and showing it to their friends. We are sorting, measuring, and looking very closely at all the items. We are going to be working on a collage with the materials we have.
This week, we were fortunate to have Dylan's grandmother come to visit and work with the children on an art activity. Dylan's grandmother, Abby, is a retired Art Teacher and she worked with the children on making paper collage figures. The figures came out amazing and soon will be hung inside our classroom. I love them. You will too.
Below this posting, I have included a slide show of some of the many things we are doing in Class K-207. The pictures include reading our published pieces to Mrs. Concannon's First Grade Class, playing chess, working on the art activity with Dylan's grandmother and our wonderful Pajama Party. I hope you enjoy the show.
To give you a head's up. On Friday, for Parent's as Enrichment Partners, the children of K-207 will have a little surprise presentation for you. I hope that you will be able to join us. On Monday, November 10, we will be going to the Prospect Park Zoo. For those of you who have not returned the permission slip, please do so. Thank you.
Have a wonderful week.
Ms. Graham
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
October 25, 2008
Dear Families:
Well our blog has received good reviews. Thank you for that. Our homework poll ends this week...so if you want to weigh in, you still have time. So far, only one parent voted against homework in Kindergarten!
We had an extremely busy week so I will try to break it down. After our Publishing Party, we have continued with more personal narratives and have been really concentrating on sounding out the words that we want to put on paper and trying hard to write the letters that we hear. The children have been doing an amazing job and their writing has been getting better and better everyday. As I advised you, the only words that we want the children to be able to spell correctly in their writing pieces are their "word wall words." These are the sight words that the children have been learning weekly. We have been practicing them everyday, so they should know how to spell them. The words that they should know and spell correctly in their writing pieces are ... "the, and, a." We have been practicing putting the words into sentences so the children are familiar with how to use them correctly. Our new word this week is "in".
We are reading our emergent storybooks and the children love the series. The books we have read so far are Corduroy, Will I Have a Friend, Where the Wild Things Are, The Snowy Day. The books that we will be reading next week are The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs. We read the new "Star Books" everyday for a week so that the children become very familiar with the text and the illustrations. At the end of the week, the children shop for these "star books" and because they are so familiar with the words and pictures since they heard the book a number of times, they actually can read the book - first to themselves and then to their reading partner. They may not get all the words correct but they comprehend the story and are able to retell it by looking at the illustrations. I was amazed when Marcelino remembered something in the story - Corduroy - that I forgot and was able to tell me that Corduroy - one of the characters in the book thought the escalator was a "mountain." I had to look back to make sure that he was correct!!! He was!!! It is great to see this in class and that is the reason why we need several copies of the "star books" so that we can give them to as many of the children as possible to read. (See DONATION sidebar)
Our math is improving everyday. We are in the middle of assessing the children's math ability for the first time in Kindergarten and boy...it takes quite a long time with each child because they really know so much. We make math interactive in Kindergarten and work a lot on math problems.
Our science curriculum is great. Two Kindergarten classes have Science in the actual Science Room with Ms. Gaimboi on the third floor (the big kid's floor) and Class K-207 is one of the classes having this opportunity. The children have been learning all sorts of things but I sat in on a class where they learned about wood and wood shavings and had the opportunity to actually sand down a piece of wood to make the shavings. They loved it. The children also receive Science/Literacy with Ms. Rosen and are having so much fun looking at plants, leaves, etc.
The children receive Computer instruction once a week in the Computer Room with Ms. Patterson. This is the first time a Kindergarten class is receiving instruction in the Computer Room. I feel fortunate that our class has received this benefit. The children absolutely love it. I am sure that they talk about this at home.
Our Social Studies inquiry study is well underway with "Our Beautiful Stuff." Thank you so much for helping the children find their many treasures.
For Art, the Kindergarten classes build on the developing skills and art concepts that the children explored in Pre-K. Kindergarten will be making abstract paintings -exploring line and color mixing concepts. Ms. Kelly is working on making an accordion "book" with an under the sea theme using tempera and collage. Art is on Monday at 2:10. I know that Ms. Kelly would love to have parent volunteers at this time, so if you would like to help out during Art, please let me know.
Our Music Program is also on Mondays and the children are really enjoying the new songs and dances that they are learning.
Gym is at 9:30 on Tuesdays with Ms. Varrile. They love what they are learning and playing sports. Please remember to have your child wear sneakers on that day.
As you can see, our curriculum is very full and rich. Your children are really thriving and are such a pleasure to work with. I love working with them and watching them grow everyday. You are all doing a great job. You should be very proud.
Please note that there is a slight lice problem in our classroom. I encourage all girls to wear their hair in ponytails or pigtails. When my daughter was in Kindergarten, she got lice and it is a nightmare. So...I feel that I am a lice expert. Please, if your child has lice, the lice shampoo is not enough! You must go through his or her hair everyday with a fine comb to make sure that all nits are taken off the hair!!! A nit is an egg that will hatch eventually. All sheets, comforters, stuffed animals, clothing, hats, must be washed in very hot water. Stuffed animals should be put into a large plastic bag for at least a month. Please encourage your child not to share hats, brushes, etc. with each other - even family members. My personal suggestion - does not work for everyone - is change your shampoo to Tea Tree Oil Shampoo and Conditioner. You can buy this at the health food store. There is something about the scent. We really want to stamp out the lice epidemic in schools. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
To give you a heads up.... On Friday, October 31st, PS 154 will be having a school-wide pajama party. This is the day, where all teachers, staff and children will be wearing pajamas in school and reading sleepy time books throughout the day. We will be having milk and cookies for snack time. This will be a fun day.
Also coming up...K-207 will be going on a trip to the Prospect Park Zoo on Monday, November 10th at 9:30 a.m. Hopefully, it will not be too cold. If the weather is nice, we will be eating lunch there. Since we are the only class going, I can take as many parents who would like to come. We should be back by 11:30. I will send more information about this trip next week.
Also I am excited to say that as part of the PTA sponsored Meet the Author Illustrator program, our class will be having an author visit with a famous author - Nina Crews - who just finished her new book entitled The Neighborhood Mother Goose. When I opened the book, to my surprise, was an illustration of my house on Ninth Street. It's a small world! Her new book is a modern Mother Goose tale, where Ms. Crew's uses computer tools to combine photos of joyful kids in her (and our) Brooklyn neighborhood with all kinds of scenarios realistic and wild. Ms. Crews is one of my favorite children's authors and I am so excited for her to come to our class. Her visit is scheduled for Monday, November 17 from 9:45 to 10:25. We will be sharing the visit with Ms. Hanson and Ms. Rios's class - K-204.
Parents as Enrichment Partners is on Friday, November 7. Please come by the class and read with your child!
Have a wonderful week,
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Well our blog has received good reviews. Thank you for that. Our homework poll ends this week...so if you want to weigh in, you still have time. So far, only one parent voted against homework in Kindergarten!
We had an extremely busy week so I will try to break it down. After our Publishing Party, we have continued with more personal narratives and have been really concentrating on sounding out the words that we want to put on paper and trying hard to write the letters that we hear. The children have been doing an amazing job and their writing has been getting better and better everyday. As I advised you, the only words that we want the children to be able to spell correctly in their writing pieces are their "word wall words." These are the sight words that the children have been learning weekly. We have been practicing them everyday, so they should know how to spell them. The words that they should know and spell correctly in their writing pieces are ... "the, and, a." We have been practicing putting the words into sentences so the children are familiar with how to use them correctly. Our new word this week is "in".
We are reading our emergent storybooks and the children love the series. The books we have read so far are Corduroy, Will I Have a Friend, Where the Wild Things Are, The Snowy Day. The books that we will be reading next week are The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs. We read the new "Star Books" everyday for a week so that the children become very familiar with the text and the illustrations. At the end of the week, the children shop for these "star books" and because they are so familiar with the words and pictures since they heard the book a number of times, they actually can read the book - first to themselves and then to their reading partner. They may not get all the words correct but they comprehend the story and are able to retell it by looking at the illustrations. I was amazed when Marcelino remembered something in the story - Corduroy - that I forgot and was able to tell me that Corduroy - one of the characters in the book thought the escalator was a "mountain." I had to look back to make sure that he was correct!!! He was!!! It is great to see this in class and that is the reason why we need several copies of the "star books" so that we can give them to as many of the children as possible to read. (See DONATION sidebar)
Our math is improving everyday. We are in the middle of assessing the children's math ability for the first time in Kindergarten and boy...it takes quite a long time with each child because they really know so much. We make math interactive in Kindergarten and work a lot on math problems.
Our science curriculum is great. Two Kindergarten classes have Science in the actual Science Room with Ms. Gaimboi on the third floor (the big kid's floor) and Class K-207 is one of the classes having this opportunity. The children have been learning all sorts of things but I sat in on a class where they learned about wood and wood shavings and had the opportunity to actually sand down a piece of wood to make the shavings. They loved it. The children also receive Science/Literacy with Ms. Rosen and are having so much fun looking at plants, leaves, etc.
The children receive Computer instruction once a week in the Computer Room with Ms. Patterson. This is the first time a Kindergarten class is receiving instruction in the Computer Room. I feel fortunate that our class has received this benefit. The children absolutely love it. I am sure that they talk about this at home.
Our Social Studies inquiry study is well underway with "Our Beautiful Stuff." Thank you so much for helping the children find their many treasures.
For Art, the Kindergarten classes build on the developing skills and art concepts that the children explored in Pre-K. Kindergarten will be making abstract paintings -exploring line and color mixing concepts. Ms. Kelly is working on making an accordion "book" with an under the sea theme using tempera and collage. Art is on Monday at 2:10. I know that Ms. Kelly would love to have parent volunteers at this time, so if you would like to help out during Art, please let me know.
Our Music Program is also on Mondays and the children are really enjoying the new songs and dances that they are learning.
Gym is at 9:30 on Tuesdays with Ms. Varrile. They love what they are learning and playing sports. Please remember to have your child wear sneakers on that day.
As you can see, our curriculum is very full and rich. Your children are really thriving and are such a pleasure to work with. I love working with them and watching them grow everyday. You are all doing a great job. You should be very proud.
Please note that there is a slight lice problem in our classroom. I encourage all girls to wear their hair in ponytails or pigtails. When my daughter was in Kindergarten, she got lice and it is a nightmare. So...I feel that I am a lice expert. Please, if your child has lice, the lice shampoo is not enough! You must go through his or her hair everyday with a fine comb to make sure that all nits are taken off the hair!!! A nit is an egg that will hatch eventually. All sheets, comforters, stuffed animals, clothing, hats, must be washed in very hot water. Stuffed animals should be put into a large plastic bag for at least a month. Please encourage your child not to share hats, brushes, etc. with each other - even family members. My personal suggestion - does not work for everyone - is change your shampoo to Tea Tree Oil Shampoo and Conditioner. You can buy this at the health food store. There is something about the scent. We really want to stamp out the lice epidemic in schools. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
To give you a heads up.... On Friday, October 31st, PS 154 will be having a school-wide pajama party. This is the day, where all teachers, staff and children will be wearing pajamas in school and reading sleepy time books throughout the day. We will be having milk and cookies for snack time. This will be a fun day.
Also coming up...K-207 will be going on a trip to the Prospect Park Zoo on Monday, November 10th at 9:30 a.m. Hopefully, it will not be too cold. If the weather is nice, we will be eating lunch there. Since we are the only class going, I can take as many parents who would like to come. We should be back by 11:30. I will send more information about this trip next week.
Also I am excited to say that as part of the PTA sponsored Meet the Author Illustrator program, our class will be having an author visit with a famous author - Nina Crews - who just finished her new book entitled The Neighborhood Mother Goose. When I opened the book, to my surprise, was an illustration of my house on Ninth Street. It's a small world! Her new book is a modern Mother Goose tale, where Ms. Crew's uses computer tools to combine photos of joyful kids in her (and our) Brooklyn neighborhood with all kinds of scenarios realistic and wild. Ms. Crews is one of my favorite children's authors and I am so excited for her to come to our class. Her visit is scheduled for Monday, November 17 from 9:45 to 10:25. We will be sharing the visit with Ms. Hanson and Ms. Rios's class - K-204.
Parents as Enrichment Partners is on Friday, November 7. Please come by the class and read with your child!
Have a wonderful week,
Fondly,
Ms. Graham
Monday, October 20, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Dear Families of K-207,
I am attempting to create a blog for our wonderful Kindergarten class. I am excited! Even though I am really not sure of what I am doing, I thought that this would be an excellent way for us as a community to interact with each other. I know how sad it must be for all of you to not know every move your young five year old is making throughout the day. So I am going to attempt to fill in some of the spaces. I am sure that as time goes by, this site will get better and better. As your child's kindergarten teacher, I am deeply aware of how the quality of the family/teacher/child partnership impacts a student's successful year. I believe that one of the greatest factors affecting student success - that cuts across all boundaries of race, religion, economics, culture and ability - is the level of appropriate parent involvement. I think a great deal about family/teacher/child partnerships. One of my main objectives as a teacher is to have strong partnerships with all of our class families, and to involve families in the daily life of our classroom and school. I hope this blog will help a little.
Today marks our 31st day of school and the day of our first "Publishing Party" for our personal narrative writing. Thank you to the many parents who attended and who read with all the children. When we talk about publishing, we want the children to pick a piece of writing that meet three criteria: (1) they love it, (2) they can "read" it and (3) they can make it better. The children revised their writing by adding to the pictures, adding to the words and coloring it in! As you can see from our publishing party today, the children accomplished these tasks and shared their work with the Mrs. Concannon's First Grade Class on Friday and with all of you today. It is a very exciting time. The children were so proud and are now authors. As a working parent, I know how hard it is for many of you to come into the class for an event first thing in the morning. Don't worry. The children read their personal narratives to many of the parents who were here in the classroom today and got a big kick out of the comments that the parents wrote in their books. Even if you missed the celebration, their writing will be posted outside our classroom in the hallway on the second floor. So when you have a moment, you can read it any time.
Thanks to our wonderful Parent Teacher Association, Kindergarten has been receiving chess instruction on Friday!! We are already into our second class and the children are wonderful. Our chess instructor's name is Jairo and he is wonderful and an excellent teacher. Even I am learning chess for the first time. Jairo has been teaching chess at PS 154 for several years. He is very talented and supportive. Our chess class takes place on Fridays, from 12:15 to 1:00. If you would like to join us for a session, please let me know. I would like to thank Lucas' mom who supplied us with four brand new chess games for our class to use. The children love to play chess and there is something to be said for the correlation between chess and a child's studies.
Some news for the week:
Shared Reading Poem: J K and L Poem
Star Book for he Week: The Snowy Day
Writing Workshop: Continuing with Personal Narratives
Reading Workshop: Reading our Emergent Story Books
Math: Patterns all around
Science: Plant Exploration
Have a wonderful week. Please feel free to post a comment. I would love this to be an interactive site for our classroom community.
Ms. Graham
PS: Now I have to learn how to post the great pictures I took of your children!!!
I am attempting to create a blog for our wonderful Kindergarten class. I am excited! Even though I am really not sure of what I am doing, I thought that this would be an excellent way for us as a community to interact with each other. I know how sad it must be for all of you to not know every move your young five year old is making throughout the day. So I am going to attempt to fill in some of the spaces. I am sure that as time goes by, this site will get better and better. As your child's kindergarten teacher, I am deeply aware of how the quality of the family/teacher/child partnership impacts a student's successful year. I believe that one of the greatest factors affecting student success - that cuts across all boundaries of race, religion, economics, culture and ability - is the level of appropriate parent involvement. I think a great deal about family/teacher/child partnerships. One of my main objectives as a teacher is to have strong partnerships with all of our class families, and to involve families in the daily life of our classroom and school. I hope this blog will help a little.
Today marks our 31st day of school and the day of our first "Publishing Party" for our personal narrative writing. Thank you to the many parents who attended and who read with all the children. When we talk about publishing, we want the children to pick a piece of writing that meet three criteria: (1) they love it, (2) they can "read" it and (3) they can make it better. The children revised their writing by adding to the pictures, adding to the words and coloring it in! As you can see from our publishing party today, the children accomplished these tasks and shared their work with the Mrs. Concannon's First Grade Class on Friday and with all of you today. It is a very exciting time. The children were so proud and are now authors. As a working parent, I know how hard it is for many of you to come into the class for an event first thing in the morning. Don't worry. The children read their personal narratives to many of the parents who were here in the classroom today and got a big kick out of the comments that the parents wrote in their books. Even if you missed the celebration, their writing will be posted outside our classroom in the hallway on the second floor. So when you have a moment, you can read it any time.
Thanks to our wonderful Parent Teacher Association, Kindergarten has been receiving chess instruction on Friday!! We are already into our second class and the children are wonderful. Our chess instructor's name is Jairo and he is wonderful and an excellent teacher. Even I am learning chess for the first time. Jairo has been teaching chess at PS 154 for several years. He is very talented and supportive. Our chess class takes place on Fridays, from 12:15 to 1:00. If you would like to join us for a session, please let me know. I would like to thank Lucas' mom who supplied us with four brand new chess games for our class to use. The children love to play chess and there is something to be said for the correlation between chess and a child's studies.
Some news for the week:
Shared Reading Poem: J K and L Poem
Star Book for he Week: The Snowy Day
Writing Workshop: Continuing with Personal Narratives
Reading Workshop: Reading our Emergent Story Books
Math: Patterns all around
Science: Plant Exploration
Have a wonderful week. Please feel free to post a comment. I would love this to be an interactive site for our classroom community.
Ms. Graham
PS: Now I have to learn how to post the great pictures I took of your children!!!
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